We have lost the belief that government can be re-imagined. Our Founding Fathers would be appalled -- but there are answers.

Last week I spoke at the annual World Government Summit in Dubai, which brings together a remarkable collection of thinkers, entrepreneurs, scientists, successful government models and more from around the world.  In every discussion there was a provocative challenge: why accept that government is unfixable?

If you've not been to the United Arab Emirates, it may seem surprising that such a gathering of thousands is hosted annually here in the heart of the Middle East. Except that the UAE may be as good a model of government 3.0 as exists anywhere on the planet. Real changes in rule of law, streamlining government activities, combining the greatest in technologies from around the globe have allowed a new generation in the public sector to actually believe that government is about customer service.

The gathering here that really jumped out at me was the University Challenge -- a competition of students whose sole question was to envision government as a service in the future. The discussions and ideas were about mind set as much as anything. No one had any doubt that the tools we daily expect to meet tremendously high standards and accountability in the private sector could also be unleashed in government.

Competitors came from around the globe. The dozens of students represented every continent and most countries. The ideas crossed many concepts and technology tools to bring greater efficiency, accountability, and broader citizen participation. And there was a holism to it -- not merely about government roles and processes but a sense of new and open architecture for buildings and bringing design thinking to any problem solving. It was all about how government and its citizens collectively could be of service among each other -- be a reflection of each other -- which, of course, has been the theoretical goal of good governance to begin with.

What struck me most, however, is that across dozens of ideas five themes came up repeatedly.

1) How increase openness of data and ever increasing tools to analyze it could not only supply greater analysis to what problems can be solved, but help predict and scenario plan outcomes and unintended consequences -- even avoid significant problems in advance.

2) How greater collaboration among government resources (state, local, national) and ideas and expertise coming from citizens living the day to day application of governance bottom up could break down silos and break through walls of obstruction and legacy thinking and systems.

3) How AI can help remove the most tedious aspects of government analysis and processing and open up government innovators to be thinking how to best be "of service" to their constituents and each other.

4) How ratings and accountability mechanisms, such as block chain, can be used to create greater transparency, lessen corruption, and improve real, measurable outcomes.

5) How efficiently, with efficacy and accuracy, voting and other forms of active participation are at our finger tips.

But these ideas were not a reduction of all problems being "solved" by technology. Quite to the contrary, every competitor began with the human element. We should all be proud of and participating in our government, that collective and multi-stakeholder expertise and action was essential -- all in the goal of making lives better, and of attaining greater happiness and impact. The unprecedented access to technology means unprecedented tools to make this so. At the same time, many westerners don't understand how the UAE can have a Minister of Happiness, Minister of Tolerance, Minister of Youth and more. They miss that putting direct focus and prioritization on the human factors sends a signal of what government overall should achieve.

As it has become the norm to presume that civil servants -- so many hard working, hoping to make impact -- are slow and bureaucratic we spend less time asking ourselves why? It is easier, certainly politically, to dismiss government uniformly as the enemy. The answer, I believe however, is we have all come to expect that government can only metastasize into a "thing" -- large, cumbersome, legacy-filled systems and infrastructures, risk adverse culturally, with little upside seen for trying something new. In fact, the best government people I know -- real patriots -- have amazing ideas but do get squashed too often by the norms and regulations of the systems. But those norms and regulations are a result of choice, and self-fulfilling outcomes. We have lost the belief that government can be truly re-imagined. In America, our founding fathers’ would be appalled.

It is a failure in particular of leadership who to protect their position and benefit so greatly from business as usual damn it repeatedly without offering any path to fix it. It is failure of leadership that thinks this is a "game" to be mastered for zero sum advantage rather than an unprecedented opportunity to co-author systems to unleash the power and potential of talent and innovation coming everywhere to solve real problems.

It is above all, I have become long convinced, a generational failure of leadership who not only benefit from business as usual, but have not taken the time to understand what is new or what newer generations takes for granted among their daily encounters with any institution and among themselves. It is ironic in that as change may sometimes make us question our relevance in a new order, it is in questioning unsatisfactory systems that we become most relevant and have greatest impact.

It boggles my mind that we can order anything, have it delivered anywhere near immediately, find out anything about any kind of entertainment, share and communicate across unobvious communities of people around the globe, get anywhere with great efficiency and more. We hold institutions that help us do these things brutally accountable with our feet (or clicks) but have somehow allowed government to be so much less.

New generations are coming of age and bringing new sensibilities and new tools to government. They may be resisted but, from what I see in so many like these kids gathered in Dubai, undeterred. It is time to take a medium and longer term view, to break through the dismissal that things can get better, and to understand models in action right now.